New stopgap solution: Syrian government issues loans to low-income citizens
2,000 Syrian pound banknotes(stock image)
Enab Baladi – Zeinab Masri
In the past few weeks, the Syrian government announced that a variety of laon types are now available, while previous laon amounts are amneded and boosted. These loans target population in its areas of control to support them financially, covering low-income people, students, and other resident groups. Loans are intended to replace the hard work of finding solutions to the structural problems impacting Syrians’ lives.
The Syrian government says that now low-income individuals can have access to loans, provided through state-owned and private banks operating in its areas of control. However, these banks offer loans under a hard-to-meet set of conditions, particularly to target groups. Applicants must be paid high salaries and have guarantors, as well as close previous loans, if any.
Operations & Policy Center
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Karam Shaar
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How does the Assad regime create and benefit from the deteriorating living conditions in Syria?
September 24, 2020
Vehicles queue in a street to get to a gas station in the city of Hama in central Syria, 9/22/2020 (Al-Watan)
AMMAN As the cost-of-living crisis worsens in Syrian regime-held territories especially with shortages of gasoline, bread and other basic goods meant to be provided through the government-subsidized “smart card” system a black market for the same commodities, alongside the private sector, seems to be prospering.
The government continually announces new measures and mechanisms to support Syrians, more than 80 percent of whom suffer from poverty. However, it seems that these very measures and mechanisms are but a means of strengthening the “free market” (of unsubsidized goods) and opening the door to illicit profits for influential people with ties to the Assad regime.